​Syrian Electronic Army hacks CNN accounts amid Geneva 2 talks

Hackers claiming to be from the Syrian Electronic Army broke into CNN’s Twitter and Facebook accounts and one of the news channel’s blogs on Thursday. The hacks occurred amid the Geneva 2 peace talks between government and opposition representatives.

Around 17:45 EST, CNN’s Twitter account sent messages such as
"Syrian Electronic Army Was Here...Stop lying...All your
reports are fake!” and "DON'T FORGET: Al Qaeda is AL CIA
da. Funded, armed and controlled.”

Tonight, the #SEA
decided to retaliate against #CNN's
viciously lying reporting aimed at prolonging the suffering in
#Syria.

Once CNN had regained control, it tweeted, “Some of our
organization's social media accounts were compromised. We have
secured those accounts and are working to remedy the issue.”

The Syrian Electronic Army - a collective of hackers sympathetic
to Syrian President Bashar Assad - has targeted other news
outlets like BBC and NPR, as well as Skype,
TIME
magazine, and US President Barack Obama’s Twitter and Facebook
accounts.

Thursday
was the second day of preliminary meetings in Geneva before more
serious peace talks begin on Friday between Assad’s regime and
opposition leaders. The Geneva 2 meetings also involve world
powers such as Russia and the United States, as well as various
Arab states and Turkey. The opposition coalition repeated
Thursday its aversion to meeting face-to-face with Syrian
government representatives. UN mediators will organize
negotiations between the groups.